Is This Coinbase Acquisition More Important Than We First Thought?

Published 5 years ago on August 16, 2018

Is This Coinbase Acquisition More Important Than We First Thought?

Coinbase have been very busy this month, making announcements and connections on an almost daily basis. Whilst a few months ago, the exchange seemed to be content just running as they did, now, the picture for Coinbase is very different. We can now see a very bright future for Coinbase, they are intent on growing their portfolio and moreover, are more intent on becoming the worldâ€™s first institutional investment friendly cryptocurrency exchange. Though through this passion to bring in big business, they of course havenâ€™t forgot the needs to their personal customers either. In their latest acquisition of Distributed Systems, a blockchain digital identity start-up, Coinbase are setting themselves up to become leaders in terms of security. This is a move that could not only make the exchange safer to use, but could also spearhead a new charge for digital identity authorisation, using such technologies as biometrics and the blockchain in order to make the exchange a safer place, requiring less personal information from customers and, utilising new and innovative approaches in order to build a truly secure exchange platform. According to Coindoo, B Byrne, the Identity Project Manager at Coinbase, Distributed Systems has been purchased and will now be run by a five-person team, all of whom will be focusing on researching and deliberating how identity management could be introduced to the exchange to make it a safer and more secure place. One aspect that this technology could improve in the United States especially, is the current requirement for customers to submit their Social Security Numbers (SSN). This is a piece of personal data that has to be stored on Coinbase servers. By using technology developed by Distributed Systems however, this may no longer be required. According to Coindoo, Byrne said:

â€œEvery time you want to prove who you are with your SSN, you need to give away a copy of it. That copy has exactly the same power as the original, so when thereâ€™s a data breach with copies of your data it puts your identity at risk. A decentralized identity will let you prove that you own an identity, or that you have a relationship with the Social Security Administration, without making a copy of that identity. If you stretch your imagination a little further, you can imagine this applying to your photos, social media posts and maybe one day your passport too.â€

See more for yourself, here. This is a part of a long term plan for Coinbase, one that is sure to help bolster their attractiveness to institutional investors and of course, one that promises to improve the experience of all of Coinbases customers.

Adrian Barkley

Adrian is an avid reader who first stumbled across Crypto after reading 'The Basics of Bitcoins and Blockchains' by Antony Lewis in 2018. Since then, Adrian has immersed himself within the industry, and has a real interest in Enterprise Blockchain solutions.